813-863-1961

This women sounded good-for a scam---told me that my niece was involved in a court action---i hope they close these jerks down before someone --gives out to much on them selves

My mother called me last night (her birthday, nonetheless), and told me "brace yourself, you're apparently being sued".  She went on to give me the supposed name of the company, located in Tampa, Florida.  Now, I lived in West Palm Beach for almost 2 years, so I instantly thought it was something to do with the issues that my ex-fiancée had done to my credit.  The last part of the message she left with my mother was "Have her call us tomorrow. My name is Melissa Rhodes, but she can always speak to my supervisor if I'm not here".

Instantly curious as to what my ex might have gotten me into, I researched the name of the company "Central Legal Services of Florida", and found NO COMPANY matching that name.  I did a reverse look-up on the phone number, and discovered it was a cell phone (I know some websites can get things wrong, but in case I hadn't mentioned it, I used to be a paralegal for a Collections law firm, I have a few tricks up my sleeve).  I instantly began to wonder, "If this woman is giving out her cell, how could her SUPERVISOR be answering it?"  I called the number, got the after-hours message, and the non-professional hollow background of the voicemail recording was an instant giveaway, it sounds like what my grandmother recorded on hers... she's 92.  But the other thing I realized was that the company name that I had supposedly called, was NOT the name given to my mother by Melissa Rhodes.

Given the fact that my ex and I are in a heated legal battle regarding our daughter that he has had no contact with since she was 5 months old and never paid a dime a child support, the fact that the cell phone was based in his brown-nosing baby mama's home-town was a major red flag, ESPECIALLY when I remembered that her best friend's name is MELISSA.   I added her name to my search- "legal services of central Florida, tampa, melissa rhodes", and I found THIS wonderful site full of extremely helpful comments.  

Since I have a lawyer on retainer for my adoption/severance of parental rights case, a hands on background as a paralegal (in the process of finishing my bachelor's to add to the work experience), and this entire website from all these other people that they attempted to scam, I'm actually looking forward to calling them up and calling them out!!  Depending on what their "claims" are regarding the "case" against me, I may or may not press charges.  But I will let you all know in case you chose to do the same.

Thank you all for the insight, even though it came at the price of being harassed yourselves.  Good luck to you all!

Deb- As a former collection firm paralegal, there is NO way that any company would issue a restraining order to collect on a debt! She gave herself away as a scam artist instantly, if she's been doing this as long as this website leads us to believe, you'd think she'd have a believable story by now!!

Regarding closing them down, as I wrote in my own post, I have a lawyer on retainer for a different case that I will speak to.  As far as suing them, it would need to be a class action lawsuit for harassment, UNLESS there are some unfortunate victims out there who did not see the signs.  Those individuals have a fraud suit on their hands, and I wish them all the best of luck in getting justice... as well as their money back!

Called back and was VERY RUDELY handled. They left message on my home phone for a person I have never heard of talking about legal action. Thought I would be nice and call back. This company is very POORLY handled. I have been in customer service for 15 years and have never seen such a pitiful representation of any company.

Hi (name as listed in phone book).  This is Melissa Rhodes-Special Investigator.  I am contacting you regarding a complaint being filed against you. You affadavit number is C5F1479.  You have been named to respond in a court action and must appear in court.  There is a contact number on file which you must call.  813-863-1961.  Please forward this information on to your attorney affadavit pertains to a restraining order.  You or you attorney have 24-48 hours to resolve this matter.  Again the affadavit number is C5F1479.  This is a legal matter so please contact me.  Thank you and good luck.

I have chosen not to call them back

We received a phone call from "Melissa" today as well. I recorded the message for later usage. My wife called her thinking it was a criminal matter at work, no idea what it might be. She convinced my wife to pay $200+ on a credit card atleast 12 years old. She threatened my wife with a felony charge if she didn't pay something. I called my wife back after reading this Google search and told her to cancel that payment to them. We will wait to see if a true summons comes to our door.

Thanks ladies for let us know other people what is happening I receive this call they said for a car accident I call back and is a machine I don't know if this is a serious situation can you help out

I just got a call from a Melissa saying the same BS as the other people. She called my home work line talking about I gave them this number as a contact number. I never gave anyone this number so she was lying. She left a msg on my cell phone. If there is a restraining order than they just serve it they don't wait for you to call.

Got this call for my brother-n-law.  called the number they refused to give me any information, said I was contacted because my brother-n-law listed me as a contact.  What a crock of BS. I haven't seen or heard from my brother-n-law in years! and if he listed me as a contact, then they would have already talked to him, yet they were looking for him.
Several other friends have gotten variations on this call with threats of the police being sent to arrest them, Court papers being filed at work, etc etc etc....
Ignore the calls, and report the threatening nature of the messages.

I got the same call.  Word for word.  Fortunately my friend is an attorney and she called and said it was a scam.

One way to get the heart pumping huh...

I received a call from my dad this morning saying the same thing about these jokers, AND then they called my husbands cell phone. Saying it was "Detective Richard Johnson" Dick Johnson huh?? Right! If they are a debt collector they should know it's ILLEGAL for them to call your family members #1 and to disclose the reason for their call is also ILLEGAL #2...I've already been in touch with our state Attorney General on a similar call I received a year ago for my husband!! It's pretty funny how they seem to have ALL your information but don't do anything with it but try to scare you...the call we got a year ago told us they wanted a NOTARIZED copy of our credit card so that they could withdraw payments!! Not likely i'm faxing anyone my CC information!! Good luck scammers!!!

My mother, cousin and friend received a call from "Central Legal Network" claiming I have a complaint against me.

My question is yes, I do have some old stuff in collections. Does this mean they can sue me for an old un-paid debt? How far can they go as to legal action against me for something like that? I want to know if I should ignore them or actually work with them to pay the debt?

I'm really confused.

My ex husband recieved a call from these people on his phone. He called me and I got really worried because I thought that my boyfriend's ex wife was putting a restraining order against me when her children live with us full time. Then when I started looking into the clerk of courts I didn't see anything with my name so I wnt in deeper looking up the number on line and found that I wasn't the only one getting this call. The funny thing about all of this is that they called my ex husband instead of me. We have been divorced since July. I am glad that I found out what was going on before I called them back. Thank you for everyone who posted about this.

Hi (name as listed in phone book).  This is Anthony West-Special Investigator.  I am contacting you regarding a complaint being filed against you. You affidavit number is DAF****.  You have been named to respond in a court action and must appear in court.  There is a contact number on file which you must call.  813-863-1961.  Please forward this information on to your attorney affidavit pertains to a restraining order.  You or your attorney have 24-48 hours to resolve this matter.  Again the affidavit number is DAF****.  This is a legal matter so please contact me.  Thank you and good luck.

I did file a complaint. I got this call this morning. So i searched the number and came across this. Glad i searched before calling. I want to laugh at them next time they call.

My Uncle just called me to tell me that he had gotten a call from Melissa Rhodes. He also told me that it was a legal matter that I needed to call her. I didn't recognize the number. Thankfully I found this website. Before I got ahold of anyone. I left them a message stating that they shouldn't call me or my uncle ever again otherwise I would sue them for harrassment and that I would report them to the better business bureau. So thank you to everyone who posted. You saved me!

Got a call from this place from an Artis Bell same speech of it is an urgent legal matter. My girlfriend thought better of it as we didn't recognize the number from anywhere we had lived so she searched it and found this and I am thankful and I refuse to call back. If there is an issue then serve me because of it being an out of state matter there are certain time frames for response.

Nice to know on the AZ statute of limitations on collection lawsuits thanks for the info!

I got this phone call this morning,just like the rest of you from Heather Howard was her name. Do I owe a little money, yes. They offered to let me make monthly payments from my debit card, and when I tried, they said this paricular debit card couldn't be used. They required a green dot card because any other card wouldn't allow automatic withdrawl. I explained that it wasn't true, because I have auto draft for many things, car insurance, cell phones,etc. She said they'd hold my account until Friday, or they would proceed to serve me with lawsuit papers. She said they'd been trying to serve me for sometime now with no luck. I've read all the posts, and it seems they can't sue you for an old credit card debt. That's what I'd like to believe, is it ok to ignore them? I called back to ask them for written debt verification, and the man this time got upset, and said, is this what you want then, to be served!!!  What do I do????

I got this phone call this morning,just like the rest of you from Heather Howard was her name. Do I owe a little money, yes. They offered to let me make monthly payments from my debit card, and when I tried, they said this paricular debit card couldn't be used. They required a green dot card because any other card wouldn't allow automatic withdrawl. I explained that it wasn't true, because I have auto draft for many things, car insurance, cell phones,etc. She said they'd hold my account until Friday, or they would proceed to serve me with lawsuit papers. She said they'd been trying to serve me for sometime now with no luck. I've read all the posts, and it seems they can't sue you for an old credit card debt. That's what I'd like to believe, is it ok to ignore them? I called back to ask them for written debt verification, and the man this time got upset, and said, is this what you want then, to be served!!!  What do I do????